Trapezuntius, George

, a learned modern Greek,
was born in 1395, in the island of Crete, but took the
name of Trapezuntius, or “of Trebisond,” because his
family were originally of that city. In his youth he wenj;
to Venice, where Francis Barbaro, who had invited him,
became his patron. Having been instructed in the Latin
language he went to Padua, and afterwards to Vicenza,
where in 1420 his patron obtained for him the professorship of the Greek, but he did not remain long in this situation. Finding himself harassed by the intrigues of Guarino, of Verona, who regarded him with sentiments of determined hostility, he gave up his professorship, on which
Barbaro recalled him to Venice, where by the interest of
this steady friend he was appointed to teach rhetoric, and
was enrolled among the citizens of Venice. Barbaro afterwards recommended him to the court of Rome, where
we find Trapezuntius in 1442, in the pontificate of
| Eugenius, teaching the belles lettres and the Aristotelian philosophy. During the same time he was employed in translating several Greek authors into Latin, which induced
Nicholas V. the successor of Eugenius, to make him apostolic secretary. These translations he was thought to have
executed well, but his reputation declined so far on one
occasion as to end in his disgrace. He had received orders
from the pope to translate the Almagest of Ptolemy, and
to add a commentary, or notes. This he performed in
1451, and the following year was banished from Rome on
account of this work. What there was so offensive as to
bring upon him this punishment is not known, or at least
not clearly expressed by his biographers; but it seems
not improbable, that his general temper, which was irritable, had disgusted some of his contemporaries, and that
the pope had listened to the insinuations of his enemies.
Many errors had been detected in his translations by some
of those able scholars whom Nicholas V. had assembled at
his court, and this probably rendered Trapezuntius more
apt to take offence. It was probably while in this temper,
that a disgraceful quarrel took place between him and the
celebrated Poggio, in Pompey’s theatre, where the pontifical secretaries were assembled, for the purpose of correcting certain official papers. It was occasioned by some
satiric remarks of Poggio, which provoked Trapezuntius to
give him a blow on the face. Poggio returned it, and
continued the battle until, as we may suppose, the combatants were parted.

Trapezuntius now retired to Naples with his family, and
wrote to his old protector Barbara, but found he had been
dead about a month. The good offices of Philelphus, however, made his peace with the pope, and Philelphus wrote
to him, that he might not only return to Rome by permission, but that the pope even wished it; and he was accordingly reinstated in his former office. He had always defended the peripatetic philosophy against the Platonists
with great vehemence and acrimony, and now wrote his
“Comparison of Aristotle and Plato,” full of bitter invective. This involved him in a controversy with Gaza, and
particularly with Bessarion; the particulars of which we
have already given in our account of the latter. His first
quarrel with Gaza was owing to their having jointly undertaken the translation of Aristotle, “On Animals,” each
claiming to himself the exclusive merit of having overcome
| the difficulties which arose from the great number of names
of animals which are found in that work.

Trapezuntius appears to have met with some reverse
after this controversy, for in 1549 he was again at Venice,
supplicating the aid of the State, and was in consequence
appointed professor of the belles-lettres. While in this
office he wrote his Art of Rhetoric, dedicated to the Venetians, which appeared under the title of “Rhetorica
Trapezuntina,” but was not printed until 1470, at Venice,
in folio, and then only the first book. In 1464 and 1465,
he took a voyage to Crete, and another to Constantinople.
On his return, being informed that one of his scholars was
now pope, under the name of PaulII. he went to Rome,
in hopes of being well received; but all he received was
an order to be imprisoned in the castle of St. Angelo,
where he remained for four months, and was afterwards
under confinement in his house. The most probable cause
of this treatment was his having returned to Rome without
leave; but this is merely conjecture; the pope, however,
at length condescended to forgive him, and he remained
at Rome much respected. In his latter years his faculties
began to decay, and before his death, which took place in
1484, in the ninetieth year of his age, all traces of memory
and understanding were gone.

Among the translations executed by Trapezuntius, are
several parts of the works of Eusebius, Cyril of Alexandria, Gregory Nyssen, Nazianzen, Chrysostom, Aristotle,
Plato, Ptolemy, &c., but in many of these he is neither
accurate nor faithful, having made unpardonable variations,
omissions, or additions. 1

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